An FBI agent, Patrick Steven Yaroch, has been accused of stealing more than $900,000 in cryptocurrency from accounts the agency was monitoring. According to court records, Yaroch became frustrated with what he saw as government inaction over the misuse of crypto accounts.
Background
Yaroch was a member of the FBI’s national security investigative squad focused on an “adversarial nation” and grew frustrated when he could not do more to disrupt an unnamed person’s use of the crypto accounts. Using his internal agency access, he allegedly transferred the crypto holdings to his personal account.
The FBI fired Yaroch, and he was arrested last week. A criminal complaint lists charges against him related to the interstate transport of stolen goods and the receipt of stolen goods.
An attorney for Yaroch was not listed in court records. The FBI gathers a slew of intelligence on cryptocurrency accounts allegedly used by criminal and state actors in Russia, China, and elsewhere.
Original reporting: KEYT (Ventura/Santa Barbara) — read the source article.
